For New NationalCemetery and Improvements at State Vets Home
WASHINGTON – To ensure Alabama veterans have access to the veterans benefits they have earned by their military service, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has provided $9.5 million for a new national cemetery near Birmingham and improvements to the state veterans home in AlexanderCity.
"This is tangible proof our commitment to care for the men and women of Alabama who have served in uniform," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “Successful partnerships between federal and state governments are paramount to provide caring and comfortable environments for our veterans.”
VA has provided the state with a $1.5 million grant to cover 65 percent of the estimated $2.3 million cost for renovations at the AlexanderCity facility.
VA also has spent $8 million to purchase a 479-acre site in Montevallo, 15 miles south of Birmingham, for a new national cemetery. To expedite service for veterans, an early burial area will be developed, where interments are expected to begin in the fall of 2008.
In fiscal year 2006, VA spent over $1.4 billion in Alabama to serve the state’s 417,000 veterans. VA operates major medical centers in Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Tuskegee, as well as outpatient clinics and Vet Centers across the state.
When the first phase of the cemetery’s development is complete, it will provide 9,100 full-casket gravesites, a 2,700-unit columbarium and 3,100 in-ground spaces for cremated remains. The new cemetery will also include an administration and public information facility, a maintenance complex, two committal service shelters for interment ceremonies, a flag assembly area and supporting infrastructure including utilities and irrigation. VA expects to begin construction in spring of 2008.
The nearest open national cemetery, FortMitchellNationalCemetery in Seale, is approximately 150 miles southeast of Birmingham.
Veterans with a discharge other than dishonorable, their spouses and dependent children are eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Other burial benefits for eligible veterans include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone or marker – even if they are not buried in a national cemetery.
In the midst of the largest expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as 33 soldiers' lots and monument sites. More than three million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict -- from the Revolutionary War to the current Global War on Terror-- are buried in VA’s national cemeteries.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from a VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
Information on the Birmingham area national cemetery is available from the VA Memorial Service Network in Atlanta at (404) 929-5899.
The Alabama's veterans homes are available to veterans who have been honorably discharged from military service with a minimum of 90 days of service, of which one day was during a wartime period. Veterans must have been a resident of the State of Alabama for 12 months immediately preceding the application.
Further information about Alabama's veterans homes is available on the Internet at http://www.va.state.al.us/homes.htm or call (256) 329-3311.
